“And to make it worse, there have been some on FR saying how they feel sorry for the wildlife with zero mention of the People who perished.”
I have been through a couple of these and sometimes contract with Cal Fire. These things are heart breaking.
I feel a little guilty on two fronts; one is making a tidy some working some of these fires (I earn it), and two, looking at these areas afterwards (Not the homes, but the wild land) and thinking how much better it looks (I do remember finding animals who tried to bury their heads in the ground to escape. Those things are heartbreaking, to think of the terror level they experienced. It is even more heartbreaking to think of the people who suffer a similar fate.).
Some of these areas, heck, most of these areas are so insanely overgrown they are disasters waiting to happen. We had a heck of a fight here on the Nuns Fire. It started close to us and we had no time to even consider fleeing. We had prepared, clearing much vegetation and having a plan. We were in a defensible area. Sadly, most of these homes are in disastrous locations with wooden decks and siding, woodchip landscaping, plants against the house, wood piles nearby, palm tree, conifers, etc.. They are a recipe for disaster and in one of these wild situations (The Camp Fire was burning at 80 football fields a minute, at its peak.), crews have no choice but to bypass these death traps.
Sadly, I see people rebuilding the same way. A wooden fence is nothing but a fuse to your house. The radiant heat from your lawn in one of these is so great that it can ignite your curtains through the sealed, closed glass window. Wild stuff. And once they are going, they create their own wind storms.
Nothing wrong with feeling for the animals that also died horribly - my beef is when folks ignore the humans in their statements. Have been a pet owner for many years and my pets get whatever they need to stay happy and healthy....however, if it came to a beloved pet or a human being, it would be no contest.
Don't - your efforts are needed. And it's perfectly reasonable to feel sadness for the people that died, and the destruction of homes and wildlife.
“Sadly, I see people rebuilding the same way.” One thing people should consider doing is building with straw bales. Below is an article written in 2007 in response to similar California fires, with many interesting and useful comments.
No building with straw bales might seem crazy, but have you ever tried to burn a big telephone book or a stack of newspapers. They will burn around the edges, but the lack of oxygen in the center causes the fire to self extinguish after a while. There are many articles at Google on this type of construction. Once the bales are stacked and pinned, they should be covered with stucco or a layer of cement. The interior could also be stuccoed or covered with fire code drywall. The roofs should be tile or ceramic, or metal could be used if the roof has a layer of strawbale included between wide rafters as I have seen built. Under the eaves should be made with nonflamable material to prevent fire entry. Entry ways and window areas are usually framed with plywood or OSB, but a layer of tile board on top would probably reduce vulnerability to fire. Windows should be double layer as one comment mentioned interior curtains set on fire from the heat of grass burning nearby. Also metal framed, not wood. Obviously all the landscaping things you mention would need to be modified—stone patios not decks, gravel mulch instead of woodchip, minimal planting near the house. I have seen fences (landscaping walls and benches) built with straw bales that are then stuccoed. I even saw on such bench that had survived a major fire intact with disaster all around. Hope you can pass this information along to others as they consider rebuilding. The link is really useful.
Building with brick or cinderblocs in some of these areas subjects them to earthquake danger. Straw bale buildings are quite resistant to EQ problems. I also saw a strawbale home a year after Katrina that had survived quite nicely while neighboring buildings still had blue roofs.